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[HoL<E  Bill  No.  135.] 

^OUSE  OF  REPRESENTA^TIVES,  June   1,  1864.— Read  first      . 

•nd  second   times,  referred   to   the   Committee  on  Impressments  and 
ordered  to  be  printed. 

•  I 


[By  Mr.  Lyon,  from  Committee  of  Ways^  and  Means.] 

To  be  entitled  An  Act  to  pri^ide  for  the  settlement  of  claims  againnt 
the  Confederate  State?,  f<»r  property  lost,  captured  or  destroyed, 
vhile  in  the  military  service  of  the  Confederate  States,  or  which 
has  been  taken  or  impi'essed  for  their  use. 

1  Section    1.    The  Congress  of  the  Confiderate  Staffs  of  America  do 

2  ennct.  That  where  any  officer,  non-commissioned  officer,  musician 

3  or  private,  of  the  aiymy  during  the  existence  of  the  present  war, 

4  has  sustained,  or  may  sustain,  damage  by  the  loss  of  any  horse, 

5  which    has    been    killed    in    battle,    or    which    has  died    from 

6  wounds   received   therein,   or  because    the    rider  was  killed  or 

7  wounded  in   battle,  or  because  the  owner  was  dismounted,   or 

8  separated  or  detached  from  his  horse  by  the  command  of  a  su- 

9  perior  office,  or  because  he  has  been  ordered  to  abandon  him,  or 
10  because  sufficient  forage  wag  not  furnished  to  the  owner  by  the 
li  Confederate  States,  under  their  obligation  to  do  so,  he  shall  be 

12  allowed  and  paid  a  reasonable  compensation  for  the  horse  so  lost, 

13  not  to  exceed  five  hundred  dollars. 


2 

1  Sec.   2.   Ty^t  where  any  person,  during  the  present  war,  has 

2  sustained,  or   may  sustain,  damage   by  the   loas,  capture  or    de- 

3  structiou   of  any    slave,  horse,  iiiule,   ox,  wagon,  cart,  boaL  or 

4  other  property,  by  the  public  enemy,  while  the  same  was  in    the 

5  actual  military  service  of  the  Confederate  States,  by  contract  or 
t>  impressment,  except  in   cases  where  the  risk  to  which  the  prop- 

7  erty  would  be  exposed  was  assumed  by  the  owner  thereof,  if  it 

8  shall  appear  that  such   loss,  captur^  or  destruction,  was  withotit 
!)  fault  or  negligence  on  the  part  of  the  owner,  he  shall  be  allowed 

111  and  paid  a  reasonable  compensation  for  the  said  property. 

1  Sec.   3.   That   where   any    property    has    been    taken    by  any 

2  public  authority  for  the  subsisteace,  equipment,  support,  or  use 

3  of  the  army,  and  the  same  has  been  consumed,  damaged,  lost  or 

4  destroyed,  Avhile  the  same  is  in  the  service  or  used  by  the  army, 

5  and  compensation   has  not  been  adjusted   or  obtained  under  the 

6  laws  concerning  impressments,  after  reasonable  efforts  to  do  so, 

7  the  owner  thereof  shall  be  allowed  to  recover  the  value  thereof 

8  under  the  terms  of  this  act. 

1  Sec.   4.  That  the  President,  by  and  with  the  consent  of  the 

.    2  Senate,  is  hereby  authoriv.ed  to   appoint    one  commissioner    in  ' 

3  each  State,  in  which  the  claims  shall  be  of  sufficient  number  and 

4  magnitude  to  require  it,  whose  duty  it  shall  be  to  decide  upon  all 

5  cases  arising  under  this  act,  and   who,  in  the  discharge  of  hi« 

6  duties,  shall  be  subject  to  such  rules  and  regulations  as  shall  be 


6 

7  prescribe<l  by  the  Attorney  General.     Such  coiiimissioner  shall 

8  receive  the   sum    of   two  thousand  live  hunlred   "lollars  for  the 

9  time  he  shnll  be  actually  employed,  which   shall   not  exceed  two 
H>  years  from  the  passage  of  this  act. 

I  Skc.  o.   That  the  said  commissioner,  before  enterinj^  upon  the 

2'  performance  of  his  duties,  shall  subscribe  an  oatli  and   file   it   in 

3  the  office  of  the  clorl:    of  the   district   court  of  the    Confederate 

4  States  for  the  district  in  which  he  is  to   perform   his   duties,  for 

5  the  true  and  faithful  performance  of  the  duties  imposed  upon  him 

6  by  this  act,  upon  which  he  shall  proc<ied  to  appoint   a  clerk  who 

7  shall  have  a  salary  of  dollars.      That  the  said  com- 

8  missioner  shall  have  power  to  summon  witnesses,  and  to  examine 

9  them  on  oath,  and  award  commissions  to  any  discreet  magistrate 

10  t^examine  them  when  they  shall  not  reside  within  fifty  miles  of 

1 1  the  place  of  examination,  under  such  rules  as  he  may  prescribe, 

12  and  he  shall  cause  a  record  of  all  the  oral  testimony  given  in  any 

13  case  to  be  made,  and  shall  preserve  the  written  evidence  submit- 

14  ted,  and  shall  record  his   adjudications  in  a   well   bound  book, 

15  with   a  concise  statement  of  his   reasons  tlierefor,   which  hook 

1 6  shall  be  subject  at  all  times  to  the  inspection  and  control    of  the 

17  Department  of  Justice.     And  the  President  shall  have  power  to 

18  employ  a  law  agent  to  attend  any  of  the  said  commissioners,  with 

19  a  salary  of  dollars,  if  he  shall  deem  the  .same  to  be 

20  necessary. 


1  Sf^c.  6.  That  the  xVttoniey  General  shall,   with  all  practicable 

2  dispatch,  proceed  to  prepare  such  rules  for  the  direction  find 
:]  guidance  of  the  coinniissioners,  in  reference  to  the  time  and 
4  place  of  holding  their  sessions,  their  manner  of  proceeding   in 

0  the  reception  of  claims  under  this  act,  anii  as  to  the  species  and 

6  degroe  of  evidence   to   support    the   sajne,   and   the  mode   of  its 

t 

7  autli*3inicati<(n,  as  siiall  in  his  opinion  he  best   caleiUated    to  ac- 

8  cnu:pli!5h  t!»e  obj<>v:ts  of  this  act  and  secure  <>justico  to  the  iudi- 
.')  vidn;;!  chiiiDantvS,  -.vliich  rules  shall  be  published  in  the   papers  in 

111  the  several  Stat-s  in  which  the  laws  are  published,  for  six  weeks 

1 1  successively. 

1  Bkc.  7.   Thar  the  several  commissioners  shall  make  a  report  of 

2  their  decinious  to  the  Attorney  General,  together  with    a   state- 

3  ment  of  the  evidence  in  relation  to  the   same,   who    shalF  revise 

4  the  report  and  decisions,  and  shall  submit  the  same  to  Congress 

5  with  his  opinion  thereon,  and  an  estimate  in  favor  of  the  claims 

6  allowed  :   Fton'ded  hov:ever,  That   if    the  claim  shall  not  exceed 

7  five  hundred  dollars  it  may  be  paid  upon  the  approval  of  the  ad- 

8  judication  by  the  Attorney  General. 

1  Sfc.  8  That  rh^  sum  of  dollars  be,  and  the 

2  same  5S  hereby,  appropriated  to  carry  into  eflfect   the   provisions 

3  of  t[iis  ac.. 


